Investor of the giant building in Plzeň will reduce the project, wants the city's stance

Plzeň - Amádeus Plzeň, the investor of the controversial giant building in the center of Plzeň, which was rejected by the January referendum, has prepared a smaller variant of its multifunctional construction. It would be built only on its own land and would not require peripheral areas belonging to the city, the lease of which the city council will terminate on June 30. The investor is ready to present an alternative version to the territorial proceedings in a few weeks. However, it demands a quick statement from the city regarding the modifications. This is stated in a letter from the developer Amádeus, sent today to the Plzeň city hall by the investor's legal representative Jan Petřík and provided to ČTK.
    "It is a similar concept, which must include shops to a significant extent due to economic viability, along with a combination of services, sports, offices, culture, and leisure," he stated. The originally considered apartments are, according to Petřík, a utopia, as their price would be about 30 percent higher compared to the local market average. "We completely set aside 'ideas' like an aquapark, rock clubs, and a congress hall," he added.
    According to the representative of the referendum Martina Marka, the city must, in accordance with the results of the referendum, do everything possible to prevent the smaller construction on the site of the demolished cultural center, even though the investor can build on his land. The surrounding areas are no longer subject to the referendum. "The results of the referendum cannot be bypassed by modifying the project," he said. All council members received an open letter from Amádeus; the current state of the case is to be discussed at their Thursday meeting during the mayor's report. The city leadership is currently refusing to comment on possible project modifications and will first have a legal office, Mareš Partners, analyze possible steps by mid-March, with which it signed a contract today.
    Activists are unhappy with the city hall's passivity, which, according to Marka, "has done almost nothing" since the referendum on January 12, while it was obligated to take all steps to prevent the construction without delay. "We will call on them not to violate the outcome of the referendum," he stated. According to Marka, the city must provide its negative opinion in the territorial proceedings by March 7. It cannot wait to take steps until the end of March, as the council members resolved in January. Activists will raise this issue at the Thursday city council meeting.
    The regional court today dismissed a lawsuit challenging the referendum, according to the iDnes.cz server. It was filed by four residents of Plzeň, represented by Petřík. They claimed that the question in the referendum was too general and that it was influenced by the publication of ongoing turnout data.
    Petřík stated in the letter that for Amádeus, the Corso/Americká construction for 2.5 billion crowns is "one of the key projects". Its preparation took ten years, and the investor, backed by foreign banks, has already invested over 330 million CZK and plans to spend an additional 60 million this year. He writes that the investor managed to consolidate 2.5 hectares of private land with significant effort. "Until then, this place was notoriously known for an Asian market, an unofficial parking lot, and the controversially perceived Inwest cultural center, whose activity was fading, and it was on the brink of bankruptcy," stated Amádeus in the letter.
    The investor allegedly made at least ten adjustments to the project at the city's request over two years, which increased his costs by 200 million CZK, mainly due to the addition of a shopping boulevard and sports section. Amádeus reminded in the letter that it would create nearly a thousand jobs in the facility, that more than half of the contract would be taken by local construction firms, and that it wants to connect the project with the polyclinic and FC Viktoria club.
    The city's previously accommodating approach to the project changed with the mid-January referendum, in which 26.6 percent of voters in Plzeň rejected the construction. After that, the city announced it would terminate the lease contract for the peripheral lands with the investor and that its opinion in the territorial proceedings would be negative. The investor pointed out that it was only at the end of the preparation of documentation that the city adopted regulatory conditions for the affected area, which, according to Petřík, are not legally binding like a territorial or regulatory plan, but Amádeus has "essentially complied". Now the city wants to prepare new ones that will prevent the construction. "A private project with a private investment of around 2.5 billion CZK cannot be prepared as a political or activist one, nor can it be changed according to current political moods or be held up for another couple of years before realization," he added.